"Run of the Mill" is a song by English musician George Harrison, released on his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. Harrison wrote the song shortly after the Beatles' troubled Get Back sessions in early 1969, during a period when his growth as a songwriter had inadvertently contributed to the dysfunction within the Beatles' group dynamic. It is commonly asserted that the lyrics reflect the toll that running their company Apple Corps had taken on relationships within the band, especially between Paul McCartney and the other three Beatles, as well as Harrison's dismay at John Lennon's emotional withdrawal from the band. Many commentators recognise "Run of the Mill" as one of several Harrison compositions that provide an insight into events behind the Beatles' break-up, particularly the difficulties surrounding Apple.
The song's release coincided with a falling out between Harrison and McCartney, which, perhaps, contributed to the latter taking legal action to dissolve the Beatles partnership. The musical arrangement for "Run of the Mill" bears the influence of the Band, with whom Harrison had spent time in Woodstock before starting work on the Get Back project. Co-produced by Phil Spector, the recording features contributions from Gary Wright and former members of Delaney & Bonnie's Friends band, including Jim Gordon, Jim Price and Bobby Whitlock.
Biographers and reviewers have variously described "Run of the Mill" as an essay on karma, a tale of lost friendship, and a love song to the Beatles. Olivia Harrison has named it among her favourites of all her late husband's compositions. An alternative version of the song, performed solo by Harrison on acoustic guitar, appears on the 2012 compilation Early Takes: Volume 1.
Background
Author Simon Leng has written of George Harrison experiencing an "incredible phase of creativity" throughout 1969, following his time spent in Woodstock, New York with Bob Dylan and the Band in late 1968.Leng, pp. 39, 59. Commentators note that Harrison's growth as a composer would have to happen almost in spite of the Beatles, given his customary junior status to bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney.The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 38, 39.John Harris, "A Quiet Storm", Mojo, July 2001, p. 68.Tillery, p. 90. The Beatles' Get Back sessions in January 1969 inspired the Harrison songs "I Me Mine" and "Wah-Wah",Miles, p. 328.Harrison, p. 194. both of which reflected the fractious situation within the band,MacDonald, pp. 289, 322.Doggett, "Fight to the Finish", p. 136. and his return to their fold after walking out of these filmed rehearsals allowed him to dictate terms for their immediate future.Miles, pp. 330, 331.Tillery, pp. 86, 161. McCartney and Lennon now looked at Harrison "with new respect", author Alan Clayson suggests.Clayson, p. 262. Mersey Beat founding editor Bill Harry was another to notice a change in Harrison compared to earlier in the 1960s, writing: "He wasn't under the domination of the others. He wasn't a passenger any more."Clayson, p. 254. An additional factor in Harrison's assuredness was his introduction to the Hare Krishna movement,Greene, pp. 110, 116. following a meeting with devotee Shyamasundar Das at Apple Corps headquarters in December 1968.Tillery, p. 69.
The financial problems within the Beatles' Apple business empire became another divisive issue at this time.Hertsgaard, p. 266.Romanowski & George-Warren, p. 61. From summer 1968 until the appointment of Allen Klein as business manager in March 1969,Miles, p. 337. McCartney was a regular presence at Apple's central London headquarters, calling staff meetings and urging financial restraint.O'Dell, pp. 66–67, 122–23.Paul Du Noyer, "Ten Minutes That Shook the World", Mojo, October 1996, p. 60. While noting that all the individual Beatles were demanding employers, Apple press officer Derek Taylor later described McCartney as "the bossiest of the bossy"; according to Tony Bramwell, Apple Records' head of promotions, Lennon and partner Yoko Ono inflicted "their own reign of terror".Doggett, "Fight to the Finish", pp. 137, 140. On 18 January, Disc magazine published what author Peter Doggett describes as "a heroin-fuelled monologue" by LennonDoggett, You Never Give Me Your Money, pp. 63, 360. in which he said of Apple's finances: "If it carries on like this, all of us will be broke in the next few months."Miles, p. 331. While McCartney sought to appoint his in-laws,Clayson, p. 265. New York lawyers Lee and John Eastman, as the band's business advisors,Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money, p. 58. Lennon's outburst attracted the attention of the less conservative Klein.Sounes, p. 241. The latter effectively became the Beatles' manager when Harrison and Ringo Starr also chose to put their faith in his tough approach to business.Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money, pp. 68–69. Refusing to acknowledge Klein as his representative,Sounes, p. 254. McCartney later cited this division as the first "irreconcilable difference" among the four Beatles, leading to the band's break-up in April 1970.Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money, p. 70.
Although he was actively involved as a director of Apple Records, and remained committed to running the label until its winding down in 1973,Madinger & Easter, p. 442. Harrison viewed the concept of Apple as Lennon and McCartney's egos "running away with themselves or with each other".George Harrison, in The Beatles, p. 287. Harrison's relief from the tedium of business meetings through February and March 1969 was reflected in his composition "Here Comes the Sun",MacDonald, p. 313. which he wrote in Eric Clapton's garden while "sag[ging] off" from Apple.Harrison, p. 144. Around the same time, Harrison wrote "Run of the Mill", a song addressing the failure of friendships within the bandSpizer, p. 223.Rodriguez, p. 148. – or as he put it, "the problem of partnerships".
Composition The song title was a play on "trouble at t'mill", a Northern English term for conflict at the local factory or workplace. Doggett suggests that "run of the mill" might also have been a condemnation of Harrison's songwriting uttered by one of his bandmates during the fraught Get Back sessions at Twickenham Film Studios.Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money, p. 141.
In his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine, Harrison describes the lyrics to "Run of the Mill" as "the first song I ever wrote that looked like a poem on paper".Harrison, p. 188. The words run in a continuum, uninterrupted by instrumental breaks of any kind.Leng, p. 92. The opening verse outlines what theologian Dale Allison terms "a statement of responsibility":Allison, p. 153.
In I, Me, Mine, Harrison introduces these words with a reference to McCartney's heavy-handedness at Apple and likens the scene to a Monty Python comedy routine. In the lyrics to "Run of the Mill", author Ian Inglis notes that, rather than "exacerbat[ing] the poisonous atmosphere that hangs over the group, by merely adding to the endless stream of insults and counterinsults", Harrison shows "genuine regret" at what has transpired and "warns against trying to shift the blame" for one's actions.Inglis, pp. 27–28. Another biographer, Joshua Greene, suggests that partly through his association with the Hare Krishna movement, Harrison was now "too sure of his life's higher purpose to waste any more time on petty squabbles".Greene, p. 116.
Inglis views part of the second verse as a reference to the "abuse and humiliation" that Harrison had received at Twickenham, echoing the sentiments of "Wah-Wah".Inglis, p. 27. In the verse-two lines "Another day for you to realize me / Or send me down again", Doggett similarly recognises Lennon's "unfeeling" criticism of Harrison's new songs, while author Andrew Grant Jackson views both Lennon and McCartney as the target of this sentiment.Andrew Grant Jackson, "Book Excerpt: George Harrison Realizes It's Time to Move On From the Beatles", rollingstone.com, 17 August 2012 (retrieved 29 January 2015).
The theme of "failed or betrayed friendship", in Leng's words, is most evident midway through the third verse, with the lines "You've got me wondering how I lost your friendship / But I see it in your eyes". Doggett interprets this statement as reflecting Harrison's "decaying relationship" with McCartney at the time. Lennon too had been a friend of Harrison's since school days,Tillery, pp. 10, 15. and Leng includes him as a source of Harrison's "minibereavement" at the Beatles' impending demise.
In the song's two bridge sections, Leng notes the "psychological stress" implied by Harrison switching from a minor chord to its major voicing on the final word of lines such as "Though I'm beside you, I can't carry the blame for you". Leng writes of this song-wide message: "It presents his realization that he has to walk away and carry on with his own life. George Harrison is not his Beatle brothers' keeper."
The final verse urges an awareness of the consequences of chasing personal success, echoing what Greene views as the underlying message behind Harrison's temporary departure from the Beatles in January 1969 – that "[character], not career, should govern their behavior":
Inglis writes that through Harrison's repetition of "It's you that decides" from earlier in the song, to serve here as his parting statement, "Run of the Mill" becomes "less of an accusation and more of a plea".Inglis, p. 28. On "the most obvious level", Inglis adds, the song "appears to be directed toward McCartney", as well as the divisions within the Beatles that reflect Apple's precarious position in 1969. In a January 2001 interview with Guitar World magazine, Harrison remarked of this period: "At that point in time, Paul couldn't see beyond himself. He was on a roll, but ... in his mind, everything that was going on around him was just there to accompany him. He wasn't sensitive to stepping on other people's egos or feelings."Huntley, pp. 23–24.
Along with "Wah-Wah", "Isn't It a Pity" and "Apple Scruffs", Leng cites "Run of the Mill" as contributing to its parent album's status in the Beatles' history – namely, that All Things Must Pass was "the first instalment of the inside story about being caught in that Kafkaesque chain of events".Leng, pp. 85–87, 91, 93, 103. Further Harrison compositions serving as episodes in what Leng calls "the Beatles soap opera" include "Sue Me, Sue You Blues", "Who Can See It" and "Living in the Material World".Leng, pp. 85, 126–27, 129–31.
Recording
McCartney's refusal to have the release of his eponymous first solo album delayed to allow for the Beatles' Let It Be albumSounes, pp. 265–66. led to him revealing the band's break-up on 10 April 1970.Badman, pp. 3–4. Late that month, Harrison visited Apple's new offices at 1700 Broadway, New York,Badman, p. 6. where he announced his intention to begin working with American producer Phil Spector on an album of his unused songs, some of which he had been stockpiling for up to four years.Huntley, pp. 48–49. Noting the emotional disarray of Lennon, McCartney and Starr at this point, Doggett writes of their former bandmate: "Harrison retained a sense of objectivity. The youngest Beatle, he was now the group's wisest spokesman."Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money, p. 133. In an interview for New York's WPLJ Radio, Harrison remarked of McCartney's objections to Klein running Apple: "The reality is that he's outvoted, and we're a partnership ... [L]ike in any other business or group, you have a vote, and he was outvoted three to one ...""It's Really a Pity", Contra Band Music, 15 March 2012 (retrieved 12 May 2013).Doggett, You Never Give Me Your Money, p. 135.